Well Hey Guys,
Lee once told me that,"Work is not a novelty." And even tho I
have been thinking about digging crystals today, it's just been
all regular old work.
You guys have hit on a bunch of interesting topics! Like some
places just always look like a good place to dump your trash.
But, Bammer, you are right about the drill. Broken spearpoints
were commonly re-worked into other tools, like drills and scrapers.
Like this one.
And yeah, amguy, they made all kinds of little tools. Some drills
were used to drill thru other rock. Here's a pic of some different
drills, perforaters, scrapers and gravers. The long skinny black
one in the middle corner has a piece of quartz at the tip.
But allright, travelerga, to the right of the drill, the little triangular
point, is your only arrowhead. It is probably 600 - 1000 yrs old.
All the others are spearpoints and are in the thousands of yrs old.
Your nicest point, (the one on the left
), is also probably the
oldest. I'm not sure what type to call it, but would have to date
it to the Early Archaic, 10,000-8000 BP. The one on the far right
is harder to call but I would guess that it also is Early Archaic. It
is not as finely made, so it is hard to say looking at a pic. The
drill is probably later by a couple thousand years. Middle to Late
Archaic period or 6000-4000 BP. The drill also has an almost bird
effigy form to it, which is interesting, tho probably incidental.
And I'm not sure what the material is?
The one on the left is made of a heat treated flint or chert. I'm
guessing South Georgia Flint River flint. The point far right is
definately some of that coastal plain chert found along the Sav.
River, for example. I believe what you are calling 'barnacles' are
actually the vugs that run all thru the chert. The piece does not
look heated and having to work around all the 'vuggy' areas may
be why it is so simply or crudely made. Why it looks the way it
does.
You got to take into account that rocks are hard as rock! I swear
they had swear words!
But the material tells the story, like with yours amguy. Your point
is made out of Knife River Flint from North Dakota. One of the very
best materials there is. The bottom doesn't look like it's missing
much, but it's hard to say from a pic. It looks pretty much whole.
It is definately Archaic, a spearpoint, total guess, 5000 yrs old.
I can't get into talking about the old/new dump site here. Suffice
it to say, I wish I had been there.
And since we were talking drills, here's a pic of two drills and a
spearpoint. Of the three vertical, narrow, blackish points in a row,
which one is the spearpoint?
I would like to see some of the tools you've found.